Ready When You Are
by Anna Fay
Summary: When Poe Dameron left the New Republic Starfleet to join the Resistance, he didn't leave alone. [Poe & his Rapier Squadron, because I love writing about friendships.]
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is Part One of a(n if everything goes according to plan) two-part story. Neither Karé Kun or Iolo Arana are mine, they are from the book 'Before the Awakening', but they are not on the list here yet.**

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Two out of the three suns have already disappeared, but as the third one touched the horizon too, Poe turned off the headlight attached to his helmet then took the entire thing off with an irritated sigh. They should have been on their way home for hours; after all, it was just a simple scouting mission on an uninhabited planet.

"That's it, wrap it up!" he ordered, and his voice sounded a lot more irritated than he wanted it to. "We have wasted enough time on this sorry mess, and it won't go anywhere."

"What's next then?" asked Iolo.

"You two go back to the base and get help." As bad as it sounded, Poe saw no other option. Doing the basic repairs and recalibrations had been part of their training, but they had neither the tools nor the knowledge to tell what caused the engine failure of his X-wing, let alone do something about it.

"And leave you here, stranded?" Her light was still on, so when he looked up at Karé, kneeling on top of one of the wings between the engine and the fuselage, Poe had to squint slightly.

"Yes," he said with a nod. "It will be dark soon. I'll shut down all the systems, hide myself in the cockpit, and stay invisible like a grain of sand on Tatooine. And you'll fly as fast as you can to be back for me by morning."

"I don't like the sound of that," objected Iolo.

"Well, I can't order you to like it." Poe shrugged, then waved at Karé to come down.

She slipped off without a word, but as her feet hit the ground and she took off her helmet, she gave Poe a look that said she felt tempted to touch his forehead and check if he had a fever that could have addled his brain. "With all due respect, _commander_ ," she articulated his title and gave it a little tip of the head too, "when was the last time you left any of us behind?"

"You have a better idea, _lieutenant_?" asked Poe, lifting his chin slightly.

"One of us should go and get help, and the other should stay," she said. "That way you'd have at least one operating fighter at hand."

Out of the corner of his eye Poe saw Iolo nod in agreement, and it left him badly outnumbered by his own men. "What a bunch of filthy insubordinates you are," he groaned, as he realised that he didn't have a say in this matter.

"Yes, sir!" snapped Iolo with a toothy grin.

"All right," sighed Poe, then he bent and picked up a peeble from the ground, hiding it in one of his hands behind his back. "Then let's see which of you stays so that I wouldn't be afraid in the dark." He raised his arms in front of himself for them.

Since she was both the only woman in the group and the second in command, it was Karé who stepped forward. She Poe's his left withouth a moment's hesitation, almost as if she knew the peeble was in there.

"Good choice!" cheered Poe, revealing it.

"You need anything from my equipment?" offered Iolo.

The mission they were on wasn't a particularly interesting one – they came to fly over a given area and let their droids take a few readings of the surface –, and so none of them carried much worth having either. They took one of Iolo's blasters and an extra battery anyway, and he let them have some of his drinking water too before he left.

"Shall we put it back together?" asked Karé, motioning towards the fighter once the dust settled down after the take-off.

"Yes," agreed Poe with a nod, and he put his helmet back on.

Now that they didn't have to stop every now and then to examine the engine and look for what could have caused the failure, they worked considerably faster. They also worked in silence, honoring their agreement of not bitching about their equipment. It's been months since the three of them left the navy and joined the Resistance, but having to deal with older, more worn-down technology was still a sore spot.

"You mind going up again?" Poe asked once they ran out of tasks that could be done from the ground.

"I'll do it," said Karé, but she didn't move to get back on the wing. As she rubbed her hands together Poe realised his own hands felt like icicles too, and since the cold made every little bump break the skin on them, they were covered in cuts and bruises as well. It looked very much like he just had a fist fight with something big and extremely scaly.

"What can we expect from the night?" He raised his voice, stepping closer to the side of the fighter. He couldn't see much of BB-8 from where he was standing, but he could hear the droid moving in its socket.

It didn't sound too promising. They could already feel the wind picking up, but according to the database as soon as darkness fell, there would be a sudden drop of temperature too, with the added 7% chance of a dry storm.

"But nothing we can't handle, right, buddy?"

The droid was more than happy to announce that as long as they could find shelter from the cold, they had nothing to worry about.

Hearing that, Karé marched over to her own ship and droid to see how much heat they could make withouth wasting too much fuel and compromising the journey back to D'Qar. "We won't sweat ourselves silly, but we'll be fine," she reported on her return.

"I guess this is the part where I thank you for staying." Poe gave her an apologetic smile, to which she replied with a shrug that was one part told you so and three parts that's what friends are for.

Now that Karé worked alone, and Poe could only hand her the tools or whatever particle came next, it slowed them down a little, but they were still making a good time. Mainly because they were careful enough to place everything they took out of the fighter in the right order on the ground, and because BB-8 provided a holographic blueprint for her to follow. It even projected it over the engine, indicating the correct place of whatever step came next with a bright yellow light for her, so it was a child's game.

Poe briefly wondered if the droid was in fact capable of feeling ashamed for not being able to help them properly when they tried to locate and repair whatever caused the engine failure, and if that was why it felt compelled to guide Karé whether she needed it or not.

"How about another system check?" suggested Poe once they put everything back to its place, and he stepped up on the ladder leading to the cockpit to see better. "Maybe all it needed was a little attention..." he added hopefully, because after spending a lifetime amongst pilots and mechanics, he knew machines could act like that; demanding to be taken apart and put back together with care just for the fun of it.

"Fingers crossed." Karé nodded, then climbed over the other side of the engine.

"Light it up, buddy!" Poe gave the order, and BB-8 swivelled around its socket with a chirp.

As the droid took control over the ship, Poe felt his heart beating faster. Looking into the cockpit, he could see some of the lights coming back, and he had to bite down hard at his lower lip to keep from cheering too early. When BB-8 started listing the sub-systems that where in good working condition, he grabbed the side of the cockpit harder and pulled himself further up.

From the corner of his eye he saw Karé mouthing the names silently with the droid. Navigation. Communication. Sensory systems. Targeting systems...

As they were getting close, it ran through Poe's mind that what they were doing was against every safety regulation. He was practically dangling on the ship, with one hand holding on to the cockpit's side and one foot on the ladder, and Karé was crouching on the wing like a pittin, protected only from the neck down, because she wanted to watch what was going on. Should anything go wrong with the engine, they were both to be in danger.

But he was too excited to care.

"Come on!" he cried out when he couldn't keep it in any longer. He saw that the droid was working hard on it, but it's been several long moments since it cleared another system. "Come on, buddy, good news! Tell me some good news!"

"Please..." whispered Karé too, clawing at the covers of the engine.

Seeing how desperate the humans were becoming, BB-8 failed to make another sound. It ran the last of the test dutifully and put it into the log that apart from the engine, the X-wing was in perfect condition, then started shutting the systems back down. They still needed to wait for help.

"Say it, buddy," demanded Poe, giving the droid a stern look.

It couldn't go against an order, so BB-8 hung it's head and sent the message directly to the monitor inside the cockpit.

Poe felt too disappointed to swear properly, so the curse he hissed between clenched teeth was easily blocked out by the dull thud that Karé's helmet made when she let her head drop against the engine cover with a defeated groan.

"Right," he snapped, letting go of the side of the cockpit and jumping on the ground. "We did everything we could," he stated in an even voice, making both Karé and the droid look towards him. "We lock this piece of junk up, we get BB-8 down, and we get inside before we freeze to death."

As always, an order floating around their heads, waiting to be followed had quite an invigorating effect on all of them.

Poe marched under the astromech socket and kicked a few rocks and peebles away to get a perfectly smooth footing. Karé climbed back over the engine and on top of the fighter, where she sat down right behind the cockpit. BB-8 turned into an upright position, opened two compartments and let ot a few cables to attach itself to the ship, then did the droid equivalent of holding its breath.

"Don't fret. We'll be careful," she said softly, giving BB-8 a pet before she slipped her hands between its body and the socket to look for the handles.

The droid had been given to Poe when he became commander, and the Navy would have surely kept it when the three of them left, like they kept their fighters, if not for General Organa's helping hand in the matter. Karé and Iolo got to bring their droids over to the Resistance as well, but it was of little consequence. She had a BB unit too, but from the second series, and he a bright, but ancient R5, so they both cherished BB-8, new and clever little BB-8 almost as much as Poe did, and treated it as the squadron's mascot and good luck charm.

"Ready when you are!" she yelled when she found a good grip.

"I'm opening it," Poe yelled back, reminding himself that if something went wrong, he had to jump aside and let BB-8 take the short fall. He didn't want to do that, but he knew he had to. Even if they broke the droid, it was still a better option than breaking his head.

But since it was high time they got lucky, nothing happened.

Together with Karé they could lower the the socket from around BB-8 well enough, if not easily, and from there the droid could take care of itself, coming down on its own wires.

"Good," exhaled Poe, dusting off his hands as Karé joined them on the ground too. "Now let's get inside."

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 _Like I said above; it was Part One. Part Two is on its way.  
Thanks for reading, and please review! _


	2. Chapter 2

It took them about seven minutes to remove the seat from Karé's cockpit, and another two to pull out her parachute from the back of it, and in the end they built a shelter cozier than a belly-bird's nest. The silk they didn't wrap around themselves went under them on the floor and behind their backs, making an unexpectedly fine cushion, and they had enough room so that each of them could extend a leg too. They both had spent nights in considerably less comfort before.

"Can I treat you to some dinner as well?" asked Karé once her lips turned back to their original pink colour and her teeth finally stopped chattering too.

"Yes, thank you." Poe gave a quick bow of the head to his gracious hostess.

"Then..." She motioned towards the compartment holding her food.

Craning his neck, Poe opened it and looked inside. Unlike many others, including Poe, Karé kept everything neat and tidy in there. No unauthorized items, no pieces of empty wrappers lying around, and all the little packages stood in line, with their colour-coded edges facing upwards. Not that it mattered; most of them had green labels.

"Let me guess, you still hate the blue ones," he said with a grin, handing her one.

"There are some at the back if you want them. Reds too," she offered. "I keep telling the crew that I don't want them, but they still give me a few every time."

"I'll rid you of two then." Poe reached in deeper to the compartment and searched until he could find both a red and a blue package. They were meant to be eaten on long journeys, or when a pilot experienced sudden fatigue, so they were created with their nutritional value in mind instead of their flavour, but he loved them. Especially the red ones. Probably because they rarely had stuff like that on the table when he was a kid, only things that had to be grown, harvested and cooked.

They both snapped their heads towards the monitor when Karé's droid beeped to get their attention.

"Yes?" she asked, licking a finger clean and turning up the volume on the speakers so that they could hear it too, over the wind that was getting worse with every minute.

Apparetly the droids have also been having some fun of their own, sharing the day's readings with each other and calculating how behind they were with the mission.

"That's not bad," noted Karé, sitting back again. Although it had been already bite-sized when it came out of its package, she kept on tearing small parts off the green jelly and eating it that way to make it look more like a proper meal.

"When Iolo gets back tomorrow, you two should cover the rest of the designated area," said Poe, and he took a síp of water from his bottle.

Karé acknowledged the order with a slight nod, then raised her voice for the droids. "We'll need a new flight plan, for two ships," she told them, before looking over at Poe. "Anything else?" she asked, and when he shook his head, she finished the last bite of her meal and híd both her arms back under their nest of parachute for warmth, swallowing a yawn.

"Get some sleep," suggested Poe. "I'll keep watch."

She thanked the offer with smile, wriggled herself into a more comfortable position and closed her eyes. It wasn't proper sleep, only the next best thing every pilot at the Academy was trained to slip into within minutes when it was the only kind of rest they could afford, but as her breathing evened out, Poe allowed himself a deep sigh.

Accepting failure have never been his forte, and while he had plenty of time to let go of the first, angry wave of disappointment, he jaw still tensed whenever he thought about his ship and how helpless its condition rendered him. His teachers and superiors called it arrogance, and his friends had even less flattering names for it, but he was simply too used to getting what he wanted as long as he fought long and hard enough for it.

Deciding that feeling cold was much preferable to feeling trapped, he brushed the parachute off his shoulder irritably and ran a hand through his hair. It was getting oddly long after more than a decade of wearing it in no other way but navy buzz cuts.

In an answer to that, Karé moved her head slightly beside him, and it made Poe look at her. It's been a while since he last saw her like that.

They weren't called squadrons back then, but after their second year and several tests, all students of the Academy were put into groups of four, and were told to become a second family to each other. As good little cadets they did just that, and in the following years they formed a bond as strong as blood. Sometimes when he woke up during the night, Poe still expected to look up and see the mattress of the top bunk bent under Karé's weight and to feel her every movement shake their bed; to turn to his side and be startled by how Iolo slept with his Keshian eyes open and slightly glowing in the dark; or to hear Muran snore like a fog horn.

Muran.

They already knew they would leave the navy, but for his memorial service the three remaining members of Rapier Squadron put on their dress uniforms for one last time. To make things worse, as his commander, Poe had to sit down and tell his mother and brother how he died, and he even had to speak at his funeral. It was the hardest task he ever had to face in his life, so it went without saying that when Iolo and Karé took him by the arm and dragged him away to drink afterwards, he taught them how such things are done properly, Yavinian style. They both were eager to learn, and as Poe thought of that night, he suddenly remembered that the morning after was the last time he saw Karé asleep.

Somehow all three of them ended up in Iolo's room and bed, so when Poe woke, he had the Keshian on one side, Karé on the other, and an ungodly pain in his left shoulder. None of them could ever tell whose idea it was to get the insignia of their squadron tattooed on themselves, but Poe never regretted it, not for one minute.

"Is there something on my face?" asked Karé without even opening her eyes.

"No," chuckled Poe, averting his gaze. "I was just thinking."

"Sounds dangerous," she sighed, and when she finally looked up, it was her turn to stare at the side of his face.

Poe knew she would let it slip if he stayed silent just a little longer, but then he realised that he didn't want that to happen and glanced back at her. "Do you regret it?" he asked.

"Regret what?"

"Following me," he almost whispered. "Here. Leaving everything behind..."

Sensing how hard it was for him to ask that, Karé gave herself a few moments to think and tell the truth instead of saying what he wanted to hear right away. "No," she stated, meeting his eye, and it was only then that Poe noticed that he had been holding his breath all along.

Jumping into this glorious madness on his own would have been one thing, but dragging his friends along...

"I know it's stupid of me," she went on with a frown. "After waiting ages for you to make a mistake I should have stayed put, accept your title and have a happy life, bossing Iolo around to my little heart's content."

"Who says he would have stayed with _you_?" demanded Poe with an indignant chuckle.

"He loves me more," Karé stated simply before breaking into a grin of her own. Then she freed herself from the parachute too and reached for her bottle. "And you?" she asked after a síp.

"Oh, I love you too, but you know that," replied Poe smoothly, which made her roll her eyes. "But no," he added. "I have no regrets either. If anything... it feels like I should have taken this step a lot earlier."

"Nonsense. You feel like that because for once in your life you waited more than three seconds before doing something foolish," she stated, and it made him laugh again.

When Poe heard her taking a slightly deeper breath, he expected it to be in preparation of saying something more, but to his surprise Karé only put a hand on his shoulder.

"Well, thanks," he whispered, reaching for her hand and taking it into his own with a smile.

"Any time." She squeezed his hand, never pulling it away, not even when she turned sideways to be able to rest her head against the back wall. She had never been too much into touching or being touched, but after spending half a lifetime with Poe, who sometimes needed physical contact more than air, she learned to make exceptions, and he was more than grateful for that now.

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 _Thank you for reading. It would be nice to be able to thank you for a review too! ;)_


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